Visions of Reality: Breathing Emotion into Fragmented Obscenities
by Sarah Kuxhausen
Ginsberg sees the “best minds of [his]…generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked” (1) and looks to industrial consumer society as the cause of this madness. Naming that society Moloch, Ginsberg presents visions of people destroyed by the effects of the social repression of individualism in “Howl.” Ginsberg becomes overwrought with emotion as he prophesies in each breath of the poem. An accessible rhythm, the breath meter that Ginsberg uses creates dynamic tension that is sustained through the continual clash of opposing images. These paratactic impressions encourage the reader to contemplate the realistic content of the poem and contemplate the flaws of a society that drives the best of minds insane. Profanity elicits emotion in the reader to provoke discontent and contemplation in the face of vulgar reality. Profane language, visceral structure, shockingly realistic content, and accessible language are woven into Ginsberg’s howl for social change in both the poem’s form and content in a truly radical, Avant-Garde style. In “Howl,” Ginsberg effectively engages the reader through the use of dynamic breath meter and parataxis to shock the reader into reacting to his profane vision of a reality fragmented by the evils of Moloch.
Ginsberg measures his verse by breathing, rather than through a formal, rigid structure. An unadorned, visceral rhythm such as breath meter lends accessibility to the poem and presents a pathological appeal that aids Ginsberg in eliciting a response from his audience. Because a more formal, traditional meter is easily anticipated, it would not work as well to discomfit the reader in order to force attention as Ginsberg sought to do, nor would prove as engaging as this beat that one can almost feel. Anyone can relate to this structure; every person breathes, so any reader can be ensnared by the visceral realities presented in Ginsberg’s primal rhythm. As “Howl” progresses, the author employs hectic phrases contained in long breaths to create an increasingly dramatic tone and convey a sense of urgency. The breath meter creates a sense of religious fervor as Ginsberg leaps from dream to hellish dream, thrusting image after image into the reader’s mind. One can easily perceive the shift in rhythm from: “who passed through universities with radiant cool eyes hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy among the scholars of war,” (6) at the beginning of the poem to the intense beat of: “who sang out of their windows in despair, fell out of the subway window, jumped in the filthy Passaic, leaped on negroes, cried all over the street, danced on broken wineglasses barefoot smashed phonograph records of nostalgic European 1930s German jazz finished the whiskey and threw up groaning into the bloody toilet, moans in their ears and the blast of colossal steamwhistles” (58). Reading the second verse in one breath creates a more frenetic tone as Ginsberg mounts an assault of hellish images. Ginsberg takes on the role of a magnetic prophet recounting a divine dream of Moloch to the reader and running out of breath in his fervor. The visceral nature of Ginsberg’s depiction of an American voice crying out, measured breath by breath, illustrates the realism contained in the form of “Howl” Nothing can be more natural, real, or accessible than Ginsberg’s frantic exhalations. “Howl’s” primal structure allows the reader to easily perceive the increase in intensity as Ginsberg rails and draws the reader into the nightmarish visions of reality he conjures. The dramatic tension produced by Ginsberg’s manipulation of breath meter helps keep the reader engaged and evokes an emotional response, yet the momentum of the poem would flag if not for the author’s use of parataxis. Ginsberg begins to sound like he is gasping for breath, desperate to convey his emotion and message, as he rants on endlessly in the same breath-by-breath format line after line. The reader would lose interest in the poem if the language contained in the breaths was not fragmented by parataxis.
While the rhythm of measuring verses by breaths engages the reader at first, parataxis provokes the reader into an active reading of “Howl” throughout the entire poem. Parataxis is the juxtaposition of unrelated statements to stimulate the reader to search for connections between them. (Harris) Ginsberg employs parataxis to encourage the reader to contemplate why he would arrange his thoughts in such an unusual way and induce the reader to form connections between the diverse images he presents. Because the paratactic statements lie in contrast to one another, the form of the poem itself creates tension. There is no obvious relation between, “Peyote solidities of halls, backyard green tree cemetery dawns, wine drunkenness over the rooftops,” (13) so the reader must attempt to divine meaning for themself. This active participation in reading to alleviate tension encourages the reader to engage in and make sense of the seemingly un-related and often conflicting phrases. As Ginsberg’s emotion threatens to overcome him as he rants, the rhythm of “Howl” accelerates and the reader must attempt to understand the parataxis or be lost in the swirl of bewildering images supplied by each breath. The dramatic tension in “Howl” created through the use of dynamic breath meter and parataxis encourages the reader to react to the poem and its content by evoking emotion. The reader must respond to the content of “Ashcans and unobtainable dollars! Children screaming under the stairways! Boys sobbing in armies! Old men weeping in the parks!” (80) if they are to understand the poem. No longer can the residents of Moloch’s world ignore the “best minds of their generation destroyed by madness, starving, hysterical, naked” (1). They must look at the world and share Ginsberg’s dissatisfaction with the norms imposed by consumerist industrial society. The dramatic tension in “Howl” is a result of the struggle to connect juxtaposed fragments of realistic content to find meaning and it encourages the reader to translate this struggle into real life and attempt to connect conflicting images in society. The often obscene content of Ginsberg’s frenetic fragments is served well by his paratactic style. The reader is assailed with images drawn from Ginsberg’s experiences thrown back-to-back to accurately represent the splintered nature of a society marred by non-material culture that accompanies the industrial complex.
In “Howl,” Ginsberg narrates the tumultuous lives of many people in Moloch in plain speech without glossing over uncomfortable or sordid realities. Ginsberg depicts the world exactly as he sees it—a broken and vulgar existence—and this use of realism highlights social problems. The 1950s, also known as the ‘Golden Era,’ introduced a heightened level of economic prosperity to American citizens in the wake of WWII. That post-war capitalism produced an affluent bourgeois whose non-material culture was imitated by the middle class which sought to mimic the bourgeois to project an illusion of prosperity. This resulted in a ‘mass culture’ that created the famous images of ‘ticky-tacky houses’ (Reynolds) inhabited by cookie-cutter Christians all trying to ‘keep up with the Joneses.’ This ideal picture projected by the American middle class poorly concealed the social problems in the decade that contained one of the highest rates of alcoholism and drug abuse in United States history (Casa Palmera). In a culture that drove the best minds of Ginsberg’s generation to madness, drugs, and suicide, most people went through life either unaware of or complacent with the actual reality that surrounded them. This was a direct result of indoctrination in the institutionalized repression of dissent as immoral in the 1950s and participation in the mass culture of their generation. The very consideration of the alternative life styles mentioned in “Howl” as sordid is evidence of their repression by the hegemony. Ginsberg speaks of a person, “who reappeared on the West Coast investigating the FBI in beards and shorts with big pacifist eyes sexy in their dark skin passing out incomprehensible leaflets, who burned cigarette holes in their arms protesting the narcotic tobacco haze of Capitalism” (30). By communicating a narrative of a man suspicious of the government, Ginsberg reminds the audience that protestors of capitalism and consumerism do exist, that the mass culture idealized by mainstream society is not immaculate, and that America does not contain only picturesque lawns with white picket fences. In fact another person who in, “…tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities…” (4) is impoverished and doing drugs somewhere far away from polished suburbia but is as much a product of the same broken, capitalist America as the indoctrinated reader. Ginsberg reveals non-socially-acceptable lifestyles in order to encourage the reader to recognize the uncomfortable aspects of society that are often repressed because they do not fit into the same hegemonic social institutions that produced them.
“Howl” provides a glimpse of individuals who cannot or choose not to participate in social institutions in the same blissful ignorance that most middle-class Americans do. Moloch drives non-conformists insane and consumerism stifles people who attempt to both retain individuality and participate in the system. They are “…burned alive in their innocent flannel suits on Madison Avenue,” (56) a street notorious for its advertising. Ginsberg cries in despair: “…Moloch whose blood is running money! … Moloch whose smokestacks and antennae crown the cities! / Moloch whose love is endless oil and stone! Moloch whose soul is electricity… / …They broke their backs lifting Moloch to Heaven!” (83-89) Moloch represents the god of post-war industrial prosperity that the American people worship with every purchase of mass-produced goods, yet who crushes individuality with mass culture and encourages people to ignore social problems in favor of increasing wealth. In contrast to soul-less Moloch, Ginsberg’s inclusive view of American life empowers the non-conformists institutionalized in insane asylums or struggling to participate in institutions on Madison Avenue by recognizing them as part of a diverse American society. From young, “Boys sobbing in armies! [to] Old men weeping in the parks!” (80) Ginsberg recognizes the struggle of every individual, no matter how unsavory to 1950s sensibilities, against cookie-cutter, homogenous mass culture. This expansive realism exposes Ginsberg’s rejection of his milieu’s norm of romanticizing society as containing only the white, nuclear, Christian family of the ‘Joneses.’ Such a narrow view disenfranchises any individual that does not fit the mold. Ginsberg cannot liberate Americans from Moloch, but he gives them a voice to express their dissatisfaction with repressive social institutions. Along with the use of visceral breath meter, Ginsberg accurately portrays the voice of America by including snapshots of the gritty realities that often accompany non-traditional lifestyles as a result of mainstream society’s repression of alternative culture. This inclusive and expansive view of America enhances Ginsberg’s message by empowering his audience to rebel against Moloch and the mass culture of the hegemony.
When “Howl” was published in 1956, it was shocking enough to the readers of the 1950s to merit an obscenity trial in 1957. This trial proved that Ginsberg’s profane language did exactly what it was supposed to—it elicited a response. The use of astonishing images and profanity in “Howl” shocked Ginsberg’s audience into reacting to the poem’s language. One particularly obscene phrase of the author’s illustrates the shocking nature (to the 1950s) of male homosexual activity, especially that of the receiving partner. He writes that he saw the best minds “let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists, and screamed with joy” (30). Ginsberg deliberately offends the sensibilities of the ‘Golden Era’ to incite a reaction to the profanity in his audience in the hopes that they will react to the content of his poem as well as the profanity and so react to the society they live in. In the age of white picket fences and ticky-tacky houses, Ginsberg seeks to shock his audience into caring that the industrial complex is forcing society into die-cut molds and to shock the audience into caring that the only people who find fault with consumerism destroying America’s heterogeneity are in mental institutions or are impoverished drug users. Ginsberg presents the life of others, “who ate fire in paint hotels or drank turpentine in Paradise Alley, death, or purgatoried their torsos night after night / with dreams, with drugs, with waking nightmares, alcohol and cock and endless balls” (10-11) to shock the reader into realizing that American life is messy and profane and to provoke discontent with social institutions and mass culture. Ginsberg cries out in the true voice of the American people by using plain, accessible language and profanity rather than censoring himself to uphold a stringent 1950s moral code. His realistic language accurately represents the diversity of American life, rather than recognizing only the censored reality of suburban society. In presenting an obscene vision, Ginsberg attempts to impress upon the reader the importance of caring that reality is more sordid than picket-fence and that this is a result of the hegemony’s repression of individualism. He seeks to show the reader the flaws of the illusion of suburban, affluent America so they will no longer complacently worship Moloch.
In “Howl,” Ginsberg displays an impressive level of technical skill in tandem with the shocking content of his poem to communicate his radical message in an equally radical method. Ginsberg rejects poetic norms in his use of breath meter and accessible language and rejects social norms by employing profanity and shocking imagery. This rebellion constitutes a form of Avant Gardism in ignoring traditional aesthetics and presenting antagonism against mass culture. Ginsberg’s transgression of established forms and content was alien to readers of the Golden Era and this unfamiliarity was disconcerting. In combination with parataxis, reading “Howl” was such a foreign and unsettling experience that it forced an active readership on the audience—yet another uncommon element. This participation was precisely Ginsberg’s goal in writing his trenchant critique of social institutions and could only be made possible though the combination of rhetorical technique and radical imagery. Active participation in reading encourages active participation the in social change that Ginsberg champions through his rebellious attitude in “Howl.” Indoctrinated readers are not inclined to break out of their own social mores and culture and it is only through the combination of technical skill and shockingly realistic content that “Howl” is able to both alert the reader of the Golden Era to social problems and incite a spirit of change.
Ginsberg engages the reader through the use of dynamic breath meter and parataxis to jar the reader with his profane vision of a reality fragmented by the evils of consumer culture. He effectively incites discontent by exposing the messy nature of reality and encouraging his audience to contemplate society through a pathological appeal by using breath meter. He provokes thought about conflict and connection in bewildering fragments and the fantastic realism within them. Dramatic tension and shocking imagery evoke reactionary emotion to effectively communicate knowledge of vulgar society and produce dissatisfaction with modern reality. The reader living in Moloch becomes aware of the god of industrial society that they unknowingly and complacently worshipped before reading “Howl.” Ginsberg effectively conveys his immense discontent with society through his meter, rhetorical devices, and shocking realism to incite a similar emotion in his audience. It is only through the combination of non-traditional form and shocking content that Ginsberg is able to jar his audience out of the comfortable illusion they live in and force an active reading to encourage the swell of antagonistic social movements.
Jarring enough to merit a trial in the 1950s, “Howl’s” efficacy in the Golden Era cannot be doubted; yet America is still plagued by the evils of industrial consumer society and the norms that accompany white, Christian hegemony today. Has Howl’s radical message and method fallen on deaf ears in a generation so desensitized to shocking material? Rather than inciting social change, the very mass culture Ginsberg was railing against has brought about the downfall of Avant Garde art by consigning it to ‘modern art’ museums and by selling rebellious anti-consumer poetry in school book stores. The bourgeois culture that Ginsberg was protesting encouraged the cultivation of modern art as an acceptable taste, and profanity has become so widespread in the mass media that it is no longer shocking to the American public. While his rebellious style was remarkable in the 1950s, Ginsberg has now just become another name on the shelf today. Ultimately, his message failed to spark the reaction he desired, instead being absorbed as art into the very mass culture he despised.
Ginsberg measures his verse by breathing, rather than through a formal, rigid structure. An unadorned, visceral rhythm such as breath meter lends accessibility to the poem and presents a pathological appeal that aids Ginsberg in eliciting a response from his audience. Because a more formal, traditional meter is easily anticipated, it would not work as well to discomfit the reader in order to force attention as Ginsberg sought to do, nor would prove as engaging as this beat that one can almost feel. Anyone can relate to this structure; every person breathes, so any reader can be ensnared by the visceral realities presented in Ginsberg’s primal rhythm. As “Howl” progresses, the author employs hectic phrases contained in long breaths to create an increasingly dramatic tone and convey a sense of urgency. The breath meter creates a sense of religious fervor as Ginsberg leaps from dream to hellish dream, thrusting image after image into the reader’s mind. One can easily perceive the shift in rhythm from: “who passed through universities with radiant cool eyes hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy among the scholars of war,” (6) at the beginning of the poem to the intense beat of: “who sang out of their windows in despair, fell out of the subway window, jumped in the filthy Passaic, leaped on negroes, cried all over the street, danced on broken wineglasses barefoot smashed phonograph records of nostalgic European 1930s German jazz finished the whiskey and threw up groaning into the bloody toilet, moans in their ears and the blast of colossal steamwhistles” (58). Reading the second verse in one breath creates a more frenetic tone as Ginsberg mounts an assault of hellish images. Ginsberg takes on the role of a magnetic prophet recounting a divine dream of Moloch to the reader and running out of breath in his fervor. The visceral nature of Ginsberg’s depiction of an American voice crying out, measured breath by breath, illustrates the realism contained in the form of “Howl” Nothing can be more natural, real, or accessible than Ginsberg’s frantic exhalations. “Howl’s” primal structure allows the reader to easily perceive the increase in intensity as Ginsberg rails and draws the reader into the nightmarish visions of reality he conjures. The dramatic tension produced by Ginsberg’s manipulation of breath meter helps keep the reader engaged and evokes an emotional response, yet the momentum of the poem would flag if not for the author’s use of parataxis. Ginsberg begins to sound like he is gasping for breath, desperate to convey his emotion and message, as he rants on endlessly in the same breath-by-breath format line after line. The reader would lose interest in the poem if the language contained in the breaths was not fragmented by parataxis.
While the rhythm of measuring verses by breaths engages the reader at first, parataxis provokes the reader into an active reading of “Howl” throughout the entire poem. Parataxis is the juxtaposition of unrelated statements to stimulate the reader to search for connections between them. (Harris) Ginsberg employs parataxis to encourage the reader to contemplate why he would arrange his thoughts in such an unusual way and induce the reader to form connections between the diverse images he presents. Because the paratactic statements lie in contrast to one another, the form of the poem itself creates tension. There is no obvious relation between, “Peyote solidities of halls, backyard green tree cemetery dawns, wine drunkenness over the rooftops,” (13) so the reader must attempt to divine meaning for themself. This active participation in reading to alleviate tension encourages the reader to engage in and make sense of the seemingly un-related and often conflicting phrases. As Ginsberg’s emotion threatens to overcome him as he rants, the rhythm of “Howl” accelerates and the reader must attempt to understand the parataxis or be lost in the swirl of bewildering images supplied by each breath. The dramatic tension in “Howl” created through the use of dynamic breath meter and parataxis encourages the reader to react to the poem and its content by evoking emotion. The reader must respond to the content of “Ashcans and unobtainable dollars! Children screaming under the stairways! Boys sobbing in armies! Old men weeping in the parks!” (80) if they are to understand the poem. No longer can the residents of Moloch’s world ignore the “best minds of their generation destroyed by madness, starving, hysterical, naked” (1). They must look at the world and share Ginsberg’s dissatisfaction with the norms imposed by consumerist industrial society. The dramatic tension in “Howl” is a result of the struggle to connect juxtaposed fragments of realistic content to find meaning and it encourages the reader to translate this struggle into real life and attempt to connect conflicting images in society. The often obscene content of Ginsberg’s frenetic fragments is served well by his paratactic style. The reader is assailed with images drawn from Ginsberg’s experiences thrown back-to-back to accurately represent the splintered nature of a society marred by non-material culture that accompanies the industrial complex.
In “Howl,” Ginsberg narrates the tumultuous lives of many people in Moloch in plain speech without glossing over uncomfortable or sordid realities. Ginsberg depicts the world exactly as he sees it—a broken and vulgar existence—and this use of realism highlights social problems. The 1950s, also known as the ‘Golden Era,’ introduced a heightened level of economic prosperity to American citizens in the wake of WWII. That post-war capitalism produced an affluent bourgeois whose non-material culture was imitated by the middle class which sought to mimic the bourgeois to project an illusion of prosperity. This resulted in a ‘mass culture’ that created the famous images of ‘ticky-tacky houses’ (Reynolds) inhabited by cookie-cutter Christians all trying to ‘keep up with the Joneses.’ This ideal picture projected by the American middle class poorly concealed the social problems in the decade that contained one of the highest rates of alcoholism and drug abuse in United States history (Casa Palmera). In a culture that drove the best minds of Ginsberg’s generation to madness, drugs, and suicide, most people went through life either unaware of or complacent with the actual reality that surrounded them. This was a direct result of indoctrination in the institutionalized repression of dissent as immoral in the 1950s and participation in the mass culture of their generation. The very consideration of the alternative life styles mentioned in “Howl” as sordid is evidence of their repression by the hegemony. Ginsberg speaks of a person, “who reappeared on the West Coast investigating the FBI in beards and shorts with big pacifist eyes sexy in their dark skin passing out incomprehensible leaflets, who burned cigarette holes in their arms protesting the narcotic tobacco haze of Capitalism” (30). By communicating a narrative of a man suspicious of the government, Ginsberg reminds the audience that protestors of capitalism and consumerism do exist, that the mass culture idealized by mainstream society is not immaculate, and that America does not contain only picturesque lawns with white picket fences. In fact another person who in, “…tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities…” (4) is impoverished and doing drugs somewhere far away from polished suburbia but is as much a product of the same broken, capitalist America as the indoctrinated reader. Ginsberg reveals non-socially-acceptable lifestyles in order to encourage the reader to recognize the uncomfortable aspects of society that are often repressed because they do not fit into the same hegemonic social institutions that produced them.
“Howl” provides a glimpse of individuals who cannot or choose not to participate in social institutions in the same blissful ignorance that most middle-class Americans do. Moloch drives non-conformists insane and consumerism stifles people who attempt to both retain individuality and participate in the system. They are “…burned alive in their innocent flannel suits on Madison Avenue,” (56) a street notorious for its advertising. Ginsberg cries in despair: “…Moloch whose blood is running money! … Moloch whose smokestacks and antennae crown the cities! / Moloch whose love is endless oil and stone! Moloch whose soul is electricity… / …They broke their backs lifting Moloch to Heaven!” (83-89) Moloch represents the god of post-war industrial prosperity that the American people worship with every purchase of mass-produced goods, yet who crushes individuality with mass culture and encourages people to ignore social problems in favor of increasing wealth. In contrast to soul-less Moloch, Ginsberg’s inclusive view of American life empowers the non-conformists institutionalized in insane asylums or struggling to participate in institutions on Madison Avenue by recognizing them as part of a diverse American society. From young, “Boys sobbing in armies! [to] Old men weeping in the parks!” (80) Ginsberg recognizes the struggle of every individual, no matter how unsavory to 1950s sensibilities, against cookie-cutter, homogenous mass culture. This expansive realism exposes Ginsberg’s rejection of his milieu’s norm of romanticizing society as containing only the white, nuclear, Christian family of the ‘Joneses.’ Such a narrow view disenfranchises any individual that does not fit the mold. Ginsberg cannot liberate Americans from Moloch, but he gives them a voice to express their dissatisfaction with repressive social institutions. Along with the use of visceral breath meter, Ginsberg accurately portrays the voice of America by including snapshots of the gritty realities that often accompany non-traditional lifestyles as a result of mainstream society’s repression of alternative culture. This inclusive and expansive view of America enhances Ginsberg’s message by empowering his audience to rebel against Moloch and the mass culture of the hegemony.
When “Howl” was published in 1956, it was shocking enough to the readers of the 1950s to merit an obscenity trial in 1957. This trial proved that Ginsberg’s profane language did exactly what it was supposed to—it elicited a response. The use of astonishing images and profanity in “Howl” shocked Ginsberg’s audience into reacting to the poem’s language. One particularly obscene phrase of the author’s illustrates the shocking nature (to the 1950s) of male homosexual activity, especially that of the receiving partner. He writes that he saw the best minds “let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists, and screamed with joy” (30). Ginsberg deliberately offends the sensibilities of the ‘Golden Era’ to incite a reaction to the profanity in his audience in the hopes that they will react to the content of his poem as well as the profanity and so react to the society they live in. In the age of white picket fences and ticky-tacky houses, Ginsberg seeks to shock his audience into caring that the industrial complex is forcing society into die-cut molds and to shock the audience into caring that the only people who find fault with consumerism destroying America’s heterogeneity are in mental institutions or are impoverished drug users. Ginsberg presents the life of others, “who ate fire in paint hotels or drank turpentine in Paradise Alley, death, or purgatoried their torsos night after night / with dreams, with drugs, with waking nightmares, alcohol and cock and endless balls” (10-11) to shock the reader into realizing that American life is messy and profane and to provoke discontent with social institutions and mass culture. Ginsberg cries out in the true voice of the American people by using plain, accessible language and profanity rather than censoring himself to uphold a stringent 1950s moral code. His realistic language accurately represents the diversity of American life, rather than recognizing only the censored reality of suburban society. In presenting an obscene vision, Ginsberg attempts to impress upon the reader the importance of caring that reality is more sordid than picket-fence and that this is a result of the hegemony’s repression of individualism. He seeks to show the reader the flaws of the illusion of suburban, affluent America so they will no longer complacently worship Moloch.
In “Howl,” Ginsberg displays an impressive level of technical skill in tandem with the shocking content of his poem to communicate his radical message in an equally radical method. Ginsberg rejects poetic norms in his use of breath meter and accessible language and rejects social norms by employing profanity and shocking imagery. This rebellion constitutes a form of Avant Gardism in ignoring traditional aesthetics and presenting antagonism against mass culture. Ginsberg’s transgression of established forms and content was alien to readers of the Golden Era and this unfamiliarity was disconcerting. In combination with parataxis, reading “Howl” was such a foreign and unsettling experience that it forced an active readership on the audience—yet another uncommon element. This participation was precisely Ginsberg’s goal in writing his trenchant critique of social institutions and could only be made possible though the combination of rhetorical technique and radical imagery. Active participation in reading encourages active participation the in social change that Ginsberg champions through his rebellious attitude in “Howl.” Indoctrinated readers are not inclined to break out of their own social mores and culture and it is only through the combination of technical skill and shockingly realistic content that “Howl” is able to both alert the reader of the Golden Era to social problems and incite a spirit of change.
Ginsberg engages the reader through the use of dynamic breath meter and parataxis to jar the reader with his profane vision of a reality fragmented by the evils of consumer culture. He effectively incites discontent by exposing the messy nature of reality and encouraging his audience to contemplate society through a pathological appeal by using breath meter. He provokes thought about conflict and connection in bewildering fragments and the fantastic realism within them. Dramatic tension and shocking imagery evoke reactionary emotion to effectively communicate knowledge of vulgar society and produce dissatisfaction with modern reality. The reader living in Moloch becomes aware of the god of industrial society that they unknowingly and complacently worshipped before reading “Howl.” Ginsberg effectively conveys his immense discontent with society through his meter, rhetorical devices, and shocking realism to incite a similar emotion in his audience. It is only through the combination of non-traditional form and shocking content that Ginsberg is able to jar his audience out of the comfortable illusion they live in and force an active reading to encourage the swell of antagonistic social movements.
Jarring enough to merit a trial in the 1950s, “Howl’s” efficacy in the Golden Era cannot be doubted; yet America is still plagued by the evils of industrial consumer society and the norms that accompany white, Christian hegemony today. Has Howl’s radical message and method fallen on deaf ears in a generation so desensitized to shocking material? Rather than inciting social change, the very mass culture Ginsberg was railing against has brought about the downfall of Avant Garde art by consigning it to ‘modern art’ museums and by selling rebellious anti-consumer poetry in school book stores. The bourgeois culture that Ginsberg was protesting encouraged the cultivation of modern art as an acceptable taste, and profanity has become so widespread in the mass media that it is no longer shocking to the American public. While his rebellious style was remarkable in the 1950s, Ginsberg has now just become another name on the shelf today. Ultimately, his message failed to spark the reaction he desired, instead being absorbed as art into the very mass culture he despised.
Works Cited
Ginsberg, Allen. "Howl." Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 May 2013. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/179381>.
Harris, Robert. "rhetoric6." VirtualSalt. N.p., 26 Jan. 2010. Web. 8 May 2013. <http://www.virtualsalt.com/rhetoric6.htm#Parataxis>. "The History of Illegal Drugs in America." Casa Palmera Treatment Center. N.p., 3 Oct. 2012. Web. 8 May 2013. <http://casapalmera.com/the-history-of-illegal-drugs-in-america/>. Reynolds, Malvinia. "Little Boxes." Columbia Records, 1962. |